Don't act like y'all don't know where we be neither.



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Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas...Durn Post Office.

I hate to bring this up on Christmas Eve. I don't want to ruin anybody's holiday with worry but, no Christmas presents from y'all have showed up yet.

Maybe I should have said something earlier...so you could have done something about it before now but, I was hoping against hope to avoid bringing it up at all. It's just I know the tremendous amount of time and expense y'all probably put into it...I'd just hate for all that to have gone for nothin'.

Maybe some of y'all have tracking numbers and you could look into it today. If you got the insurance...I'll be happy to take the cash value. We'll let the gauchness of it pass without remark...given the circumstances.

Durn u.s. Post office.

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Monday, December 19, 2011

Waffle House - Ephemera and Detritus

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High Street Waffle House.

After the closing of Tastee Donuts in Fondern, and before the need for wi-fi, I lived there. Waffle House is a Southern Institution...you wouldn't pass it up if you were in these parts.

A couple of weeks ago, I stopped at a gas station in Poplarville to get a cup of coffee. As I leaned on the hood smoking a cigarette two cars pulled up and out poured 10 kids from Birmingham England. They were on their way from New Orleans to Memphis. Best I could tell they had been having the time of their life.

Two things they were most excited about at the moment...one, the Mug Shot papers. You'll find 'em in every gas station. It's just a little paper magazine that reprints the county mug shoots, booking photos, for that month.

"Ohhhh...somebody be'd going to jail over this back home."

And the food..."Waffle House...yeah Waffle House," it kinda echoed around the nodding group.

It wasn't uncommon for Brits to show up at High St. on their way to New Orleans. It was right off the interstate.

"How much farther?"

"Three hours maybe"

Slumped shoulders and a look of total defeat.

The food is scrumptious...when they're clean enough to eat in. Usually the first six months they're fine...then the retired hookers, drug dealers, etc. are moved in and it's a steady decent. Most of the clientele don't care...truckers, cops, working girls and students.

The place is open 24 hours...that's all you really need to know.

High St. was where I got through school and met half the people in my life...and this was my view.

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I was sitting in that very spot the night that David Allan Coe asked if he and a very young, very Asian, very stoned woman could have the booth.



It's also the place where I met Allan...our Allan. I was there preparing to start at Millsaps. He was already a superstar there....preparing for a senior year that would end with three Oral and Written comprehensive exams. He left the place with a degree in History, Philosophy and Religious Studies. He would go on to receive a PhD in Philosophy and is now warping young minds in Mobile Alabama. He is most famous for holding the position of non-contributing Philosopher here at Flimsy Cups.

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I also met Matt M. there...and for the next four years we spent hours there almost every day. Talking (mostly music and his lady troubles), smoking and drinking as much coffee as they could make. About $1.09 for a bottomless cup back then.

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Matt's at Princeton now studying music.

There was Brannon...a kind of brooding figure that delivered papers in the morning and pizzas at night during his last year of high school. He had calculated every dime it would take to pay rent and buy groceries for four years of college. He'd have a hasbrown...but, no smother or cover. That 75 cents might be the difference between having a tube of toothpaste in March or brushing with baking soda.

He was also brilliant and, last I heard, a PhD candidate at Harvard...probably done by now.


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The help were ambiguous about our presence. They'd clown with us sometimes...ask for rides home, try to sell us dope...growl about having to make another pot of coffee.

They had their own problems...bail bondsmen, the poleese, ex girlfriends.

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What really makes a Waffle House besides never closing and the ash trays...is the sound. Stainless steel constantly banging and scraping on cast iron, the ring of plates spinning on linoleum, shouted orders, metal spoons pinging against ceramic coffee cups.

For someone who can't concentrate when it's quiet it was the best possible place to study...and I worked my way through school in that place. That and I doodled.

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Sometimes both.

I have stacks of these little tablets...occasionally there are notes but, mostly just doodles and misc. thoughts.

Somehow it all worked out.

We aren't done with the Waffle House.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Lent

I'm not gonna talk about what I'm giving up for Lent...that would be inappropriate and gross in a forum like this, BUT...

I will talk about what I thought about giving up.

I thought long and hard about giving up wise-cracks for Lent...trying to be nice and thoughtfully responsive to those that comment here on the blog...mainly Adam and the Sister. Allan would get it worst of all, but he's a big Planter now and too busy with the help to stop by and share with us, so...

I couldn't do it though...first of all the Sister deserves most of what she gets. Y'all know how she talks to me. Just last night..."stuff-it moron." Two, I'm afraid after all these years Adam wouldn't know who he was talking to or how to deal with it...he might try to e-hug me. Three, NAT's on the verge of being in need of harassment...especially if he keeps laughing at the Sister's jokes. Four, you never know when Allan might stop swinging the whip for a mint julep break and make an apperance...it's just too much to ask of week soul like me.

Happy Mardi Gras.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Cast of Characters

I think this has gone on long enough without y'all havin' some idea of what these people look like. These characters who work so hard to make my material existence the absurdity that it is...need faces.

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Wren - A Southern lady of class and great taste...obviously.
She's also the wife of....

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Allan - He is a distinguished professor of philosophy...here setting out to create what he likes to call "the beautiful negation." He's also an expert in claiming that my blog won't let him post.

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Adam - A Northern (not a yank** the English kind) husband, father and archeologist...and electric guitar player. Ironically Adam is most well known for his hatred of rocknroll...you can see how passionate he is on this subject in his frequent rants against the Fall.

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The Sister - This was the most gussied up picture I could find...musta been right after Church...maybe a wedding. Is anybody suprised to read that I recieved the following text from her lastnight..."Kiss my grits"?

(Disclaimer...to those who don't know. My sister, like the other ladies in this post is also a lovely and gracious Southern Lady...she does not smoke...even cartoon cigarettes, does not have a tatoo, and doesn't shop for herself at Baby Gap. She is good humored about everything except her fabulous looks.
The red hair though...is very real.
I aaam not wri-ting thiiis undeer dureeessss).

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The Boy - What a rock star. (He doesn't wear that outfit everyday...his Momma won't let me get away with that...it was football team day at his little school)

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Martha - the very lovely, beautiful, and gracious Martha...organizing something.

That's them y'all...that's what I'm dealing with.